Did I REALLY sign up for this??

Ok after I typed the title I realized that it sounds like someone died, so let me set your mind at ease, no one has died.  As I said in some previous posts, I am currently in the "dread" 3rd semester (of nursing school, not of school).  I know you might think I'm exaggerating the terribleness of this semester but I'm seriously not.  For some reason this is the semester that gets people.  In orientation (yes orientation ) the professors talk to the new students about 3rd semester & how hard it is.  Honestly I don't remember them doing this (although I'm sure they did), but it's gotten so bad that a friend of mine said that a student completely dropped out of the program this semester after JUST GOING TO ORIENTATION because of what they said about 3rd semester! I mean come on!  As I've stated before I in NO WAY think that 3rd semester is the hardest semester.  In fact, to me, this has by FAR been the easiest semester we've had.  I mean we...

So I may or may not have metioned that for school we have to wear hideous white scrubs.  Lord only knows why b/c our school colors are blue (not navy, more like a royal blue), but I digress.  For school we all have to wear all white scrubs, but thankfully we do get to pick from several different choices of the type of scrubs, and for me the only clear choice was Grey's Anatomy scrubs, they are SOOO soft.  It's truly like wearing pj's & althought they are more expensive then the other scrubs I PROMISE the extra cost is worth it....or is it?  Recently I was contacted by Uniformed Scrubs to see if I wanted to try out one of their Cherokee Scrub tops.  Uh hello? You're sending me a scrub top FOR FREE ?  Heck yeah!  They told me to pick out a top & let them know the size & color that I wanted (actually my top 3 choices) so I emailed them back & voila, the top showed up in the mail.  Here is the top I chose: I love this ...

Thought this happy dance was appropriate as Easter is coming :D  The two things I was dreading most this semester are DONE!!!   The first was my OB group presentation (Yuck!!) & the 2nd was my Med/Surg research paper (double yuck). But those are done & I couldn't be happier about that! So now it's just regular old clinicals & tests for the rest of the semester.  :D  Yay!! Of course I do have two HESI's, but thank God they're only worth 5% of the total grade.  One of the HESI's is a Pharm HESI (of which we didn't learn ONE thing last semester).  So I'm pretty sure it will be the first HESI that I bomb, but the other one is an OB HESI & I'm not too worried about that.  I have a strong B in OB & I'm still thinking I can pull out an A in that class, and I've always performed strong on all of my prior HESI's, so I'm not really concerned about that one. I'm so happy that the end of this semester is in site. ...

Finally had my first REAL OB rotation (not stinky skills lab) yesterday.  All in all it was alright.  I was really looking forward to it because so many of my other friends really loved it, but alas, I guess I just thought it was ok.  Now that's not to say that I disliked it, I could see myself working on that floor no problem, BUT I didn't fall in love with it like some of my friends have.  I didn't hear the angels singing when I walked through the door :)  Of course, that was just L & D.  I haven't done nursery or postpartum yet, so we'll see.  Maybe I will like those better.  If not there's always the rotations next semester.  I'm kind of starting to get a little worried.  What if I don't fall in love with any of these areas?  What do I do then?  Maybe it's ok to just "like" what I do.  But honestly, after spending all of this time & money, I'd really like to LOVE what I'm doing.  Is that too much to...

Today I was looking back at the beginning of my posts & I came across the one where I had to get my CPR certification before school started & it was so cute.  As I was reading the post I was talking about meeting "Greg" an Asian guy in my CPR class.  Well as my longer time readers know Gregory (he hates to be called Greg) has since then become my nursing bestie!! It's so cute to look back at the posts at the beginning of this journey.  I can't wait until I'm finished with school, I am totally going to print this out into a book.  I'm glad I have this blog to look back on.  Also, there were 2 other people in my CPR class that I didn't know at the time that I now now very well.  Well, all of them except one.  I do know her but not very well.  We have a fairly large class of about 62 or so people (we've lost/gained a few so I'm not sure the exact number at this point) so I don't always talk to all of them all of the time, but I am pleased...

So today I was reading Sophia's blog over at All Things NP , she's a NP student at Penn State.  As I was reading about her interview process with Penn State & her rotations & her Sim Man day I started thinking, I am nowhere NEAR as smart as she is.  I still struggle with what lab values are correct, much less IF they're off then why??!!  I know that I don't put in as much time studying as some of my other classmates do and all of this makes me really doubt myself.  When will this stuff start to really click? When will I start to KNOW this stuff?  I wish I could spend more time studying than I do & in all honesty I probably could, but I also have a very busy life.  I know that's not an excuse as everyone has their own "stuff", but I was seriously thinking as I was reading over her blog that I really need to buckle down & start reading a bit more.  I definitely need to start studying more.  I mean, I'm doing fine in my classes but P...

Spring Break is halfway over & I haven't been as productive as I'd hoped, but maybe I can rectify that today.  Hubby was off from work yesterday so of course I wasn't about to leave & head up to the library on his one day off this week.  Today though I have a LIST of things I need to get done.  I have several OB quizzes that I need to take, a couple of case studies that I need to do & a fetal heart strip that I have to "read" (yeah ok) & then I need to work on my paper that's due in a little over a week.  I finally finished HAND WRITING all 56 of my "Critical to Remember" cards (and they were the big index cards, not the little ones) for OB.  Whew, instead of calling it Spring Break they should call it Spring Catch Up.  That's ok though, at least I'll have all of this stuff done before I start OB.  Some of my friends didn't do their Critical to Remember cards ahead of time & they were up REALLY late doing them ...

Ok so as most of you know I just got done with my Med/Surg rotation.  For the first 3 weeks we had one instructor & for the last 3 weeks we had another.  Well this morning I found out that the instructor I JUST had passed away this weekend.  I am so shocked and saddened by the loss.  She was a GREAT instructor.  She only taught clinicals and she did it so well.  As you all know Med/Surg has been our "bane", but she made it not only bearable but completely fun.  I was honored to have her as my instructor and was better off for it.  It is so crazy to think that such a vibrant, hilarious woman, who seemed completely healthy, could just so suddenly be gone.  It is a shock to say the least.  We had a really great rapport and I hope that she knew how much I respected her. 

Can tomorrow really be my last day of my Med/Surg clinical rotation??? YOU BET IT CAN!! Here's the count so far for this semester.  Two OB tests down, B's on both.  Two Med/Surg tests down, C's on both :( (but they were sooo close to B's), whatev, and Med/Surg clinical in the bag!!  Woohoo!  So far so good.  Friday marks the end of this first half of 3rd semester & then next week is Spring break & I will be almost done with the most feared semester of nursing school.  I have to say I should probably listen to my very wise husband more often.  Say when I'm totally freaking & dreading something coming up in the future.  He tells me all the time to stop listening to what other people say & wait & judge for myself, but do I listen?  Not usually.  Should I? Apparantely so.  This semester has had me tore up since the middle of LAST semester & for what?  Well so far, nothing yet.  Either I'...

I am so super excited to have been chosen by Nursing Degree.org as one of the Top 50 Nursing Blogs under the category of "Student"!!!  That is so cool! I got the email the other day & I just went & viewed my write up, so super cool!!! If you want to check out the other great blogs go here & you can see the whole list.  Of course I also want to send a big shout out to AZ mom as her blog was nominated, as well as many other blogs that I follow ( Adventures of a PICU nurse , Hood Nurse )!!! So very happy to have been chosen with these other great blogs.  Very cool. Monday is my 2nd Med/Surg test.  It covers diabetes & the heart.  Have I mentioned before how much I dislike the heart?  I love the fact that my keeps pumping for me, of course, but the intricasies of the heart are more than I can wrap my head around usually.  Thank goodness it's not about the patho of the heart, maybe this time I can get it.  Everyone has told me...